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BBC news is reporting that Malta may be objecting to an EU decision to extend sanctions on Libya. As fighting in rebel held territories worsens with heavier attacks by Gaddafi’s forces Malta seems to be shuffling its feet when it notices that the sanctions might hurt its own pocket: A European Union decision on whether…
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“To men fighting for their lives day by day in the foulest of physical conditions it was nauseating to read, day after day, the lying official communiqués in the Press.” I came across this quote in a book by BBC journalist John Simpson (Unreliable Sources, Macmillan 2010) that is turning out to be an excellent…
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La Stampa reports another wave of immigrants landing in Lampedusa. By ten o’clock last night four boats had arrived in less than 6 hours carrying 218 persons. The Libyan border with Tunisia is one massive refugee camp while the south to north migration seems to not have been deterred by the troubles in North Africa.…
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A serialised long post intended to reassure readers that while we normally let sleeping dogs lie there is no reason to believe that we are reluctant to call a spade a spade. N.B. To be read in doses. Reminder to Daphne-lites: You are free not to read on. On the other hand the breaking down…
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Joseph Muscat must be chewing his liver by now. The Libyan Crisis has propelled our Prime Minister back up in the popularity stakes thanks to the wonderful transformation of our island into the Florence Nightingale of the Mediterranean. After the early hesitant pussy-footing Prime Minister Gonzi took a stand in line with the UN, the…
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“What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” The…